October 12, 2023

Over the past few decades, two extreme ideas have unfortunately gained wide acceptance: that racism is systemic in America; and that if you are white, you are by default privileged and racist. 

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As a result, many young whites are ridden with guilt.  Meanwhile, leftists and radical blacks are advancing reverse racism – active discrimination against those who happen to be white.

No wonder a 2021 Gallup poll found white-black relations at a 20-year low: 57% of the respondents said relations were “somewhat” or “very” bad.  In The War on Whites, author Ed Brodow attributed the downturn to Barack Obama and his focus on racial division.  Harping on white supremacy and privilege fomented animosity and engendered an inquisition against whites, aimed at exorcising unconscious biases through a “racial justice shakedown.”

Examples abound of institutional level discrimination by exclusion of whites, unthinkable a decade ago and sure to provoke widespread outrage if blacks or Latinx were excluded.  Perhaps the most glaring instance is the establishment of quotas by the city of Asheville, North Carolina, for its Human Relations Commission.  Five white residents, represented by attorney Ruth Smith, have sued the city for employing “illegal discriminatory policies and procedures.”

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More on the Asheville lawsuit later.  Before that, some other examples of the effrontery with which institutions are testing the waters on anti-white discrimination, perhaps in the hope of normalizing it eventually:

  • To mark the second anniversary of her inauguration as mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot announced that she wouldn’t be granting one-on-one interviews to white reporters.  Her justification: the City Hall press corps was overwhelmingly white in a city where more than half the people identify as black, Latino, Native American, or Asian Pacific Americans.
  • In August, retail giant Best Buy released a memo about a mini MBA-style training program for employees from which whites were specifically prohibited.  The social-media blowback was such that its CEO Corie Barry made her Twitter account private.
  • Last year, Brown University offered an online teacher-training course meant only for black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).  It removed the restriction after a complaint.
  • The University of Minnesota established a summer internship to prepare students for graduate school that excluded whites and offered stipends of $6,000 to black and Native American students.  The university is re-evaluating the program after a complaint.
  • In 2021, Cornell University created a BIPOC-only rock-climbing course.  An instructor claimed it wasn’t discriminatory but aimed at making minorities comfortable in a white-centric sport.

Now for the details of the Asheville case.  In 2018, the city established a Human Relations Commission of Asheville (HRCA), a voluntary advisory board to “promote and improve human relations and achieve equity among all citizens.”  When it was set up, the commission was to have nine members; this was then raised to 15 members.  The membership criteria were: six African Americans; two Latinx; two LGBTQ; two aged 18-25; two to three living in public housing; two with disability; and three recognized as community leaders.

Last year, city attorney Aairn Miles and equity consultant Alayna Schmidt recommended the removal of these racial qualifications, recognizing them as constitutionally problematic and amounting to race quotas, not permitted under federal and state law.  At the time, Tanya Rodriguez, the HRCA chair, expressed concern that “our color” shouldn’t be “diluted out of the commission.”

The numerical quotas were removed, but new categories were created that effectively kept whites out unless they satisfied criteria such as being LGBTQ+, disabled, etc.  And after facing quorum problems, in January this year, the HRCA’s strength was reduced to nine members, with membership open to up to three non-city residents of Buncombe County.

In February this year, there were four vacancies on the HRCA.  Among those who applied were John Miall, Robyn Hite, David Shaw, Danie Johnson, and Willa Grant – all white, not disabled, not LGBTQ+, and not living in public housing, hence not meeting the criteria, but otherwise well qualified to serve.  Miall has in fact worked for the city for 30 years, including as its director of risk management.  Hite serves on a teachers’ board, and the others are professionals or citizens with a record of social service.

The city rejected them outright, neither interviewing them nor seeking more information about their qualifications.  Unable to fill the positions, the city has readvertised the vacancies.